The company creates "machines that walk with an uncanny
sense of balance and even — cheetahlike — run faster than the
fastest humans," says The Times.

Google is not saying how much money it paid for Boston Dynamics, and said
that it does not plan to release financial information on any of
the other eight robotics companies it has purchased in the last 6
months.

The Times reports,

A video of one of [Boston Dynamics'] robots
named BigDog shows a noisy, gas-powered, four-legged, walking
robot that climbs hills, travels through snow, skitters
precariously on ice and even manages to stay upright in response
to a well-placed human kick. BigDog development started in 2003
in partnership with the British robot maker Foster-Miller, NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Harvard.

The video has been viewed more than 15 million times since it was
posted on YouTube in 2008.